Cuba’s Alfredo Guevara dies at 87
Founder of Havana’s New Latin American Film Festival.
HAVANA TIMES — Alfredo Guevara, founder of the Havana Film Festival, and an old friend of Fidel Castro, died today in Havana from a heart attack at age 87, reported dpa news.
Guevara was also the founder of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) created two months after the revolution triumphed in January 1959.
Guevara directed the annual Film Festival until his death, one of the most important of its kind of the continent. Until the end of his days he made both the opening and closing speeches of the event traditionally held in December.
Guevara’s life was closely linked to the Cuban Revolution. The intellectual, essayist and film production assistant met former President Fidel Castro during his college years and participated in student protests during the regime of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1975 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Culture of Cuba and served as the island’s ambassador to UNESCO in the 80s.
To this day, Guevara was considered one of the most influential intellectuals of Cuban culture, noted dpa.
We loved and respected him
Alfredo Guevara turned his back on his gay and artist countrymen during the
UMAP Concentration Camps of the early 1960’s and he continued to censor many
artists! Now is this a real legacy??
VARIETY: Cuba Film Censorship Grip Loosens – 03.09.13
National film org Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematograficos
(ICAIC) wanted Havana’s December Festival of New Latin American Cinema to pull
the plug on Carlos Lechuga’s feature debut “Melaza” (Molasses) for its political
tone, says Brugues, who co-produced the drama. The pic is set against the
closure of a sugar mill and the impact the shuttering has on a young couple.
ICAIC, the sole distributor of Cuban pics on the communist island nation, has no
intentions of releasing the pic, but Lechuga has been fielding offers from
various fests, and has taken the film to Rotterdam. Next up is Miami, where it
will have its U.S. debut.
http://variety.com/2013/biz/international/cuba-film-censorship-grip-loosens-1200005905/
Cuba was lucky to have someone who understood:
“No hay vida adulta sin herejía sistemática, sin el compromiso de correr
todos los riesgos. Y es por eso que esa actitud ante la vida, ante el
mundo, …” Cuban Film maker politico Alfredo Guevara. Which I take to
mean that to be an adult you must risk being a heretic.